Just finished Gone girl, it was nice, but I didn't really see the big twist/surprise everyone was talking about. Maybe I've read too much Agatha Christie and I'm spoiled for good crime novels. It was enjoyable though.

_________________I dunno, I guess I just get enthused over eating big ol' squishy balls. - Interrobang?!

Anek, try Corpse in the Koryo, by James Church. It's set in North Korea, and is certainly unique. It's not quite hard boiled or noir, but has a spare style. It's not a keep you guessing novel, but the plot unfolds nicely. I'm on the second one now.

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

Now that I'm done with school for the summer, I'm going crazy with the reading. I can read stuff and not have to take copious notes or plot paper strategy! Yay!

Since my last final this past Tuesday, I've read The Road by McCarthy, am half-way through Oates' The Accursed, and have been torturing/amusing myself with the masterpiece that is Fifty Shades of Grey.

My summer reading list includes the above (minus FSOG) and: Gogol's Dead Souls, Eagan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, Didion's Blue Nights, Juliet Barker's Bronte biography (which I started over winter break), and Bloom's The Anatomy of Influence. If I make it through all of that, I'd like to finish Ngugi's Wizard of the Crow, part of which I read for a class and really enjoyed. I'd also like to get a head start on various George Eliot novels for next semester.

Anyone have any good international mystery recommendations? Or actually any good mystery with a strong setting.

Maybe you can find some ideas here? The lack of diacritics annoyed me greatly, but the list itself seems pretty good. I have only read a few of the authors (I rarely read mysteries these days). I do remember Åsa Larsson's Sun Storm (also published as The Savage Altar) as having a very strong setting, but I think that depended largely on the fact that I have lived in the town it's set. Most Nordic mysteries have strong settings I think? Some Islandic and Peter Høeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (if you happen to not have read this one, I do recommend it) comes to mind as well.

Fair enough. Hopefully someone else will have recommendations for you. A quick scan of my bookshelves also revealed Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldán, which is a near future cyber-political thriller from Bolivia.

Good grief. I only have $37 left on my gift card. That went fast. I should go finish one of the nonfiction books I've been alternating through. Rocks Don't Lie about Noah's Flood is pretty good.

I keep doing this: I get on a kick, stock up on books, then get on a new kick and stock up on new books. So I'm still reading the non fiction and am off onto mysteries again. It's been a few years since a good mystery kick though.

I'm behind on a few series: Cornwell, Reichs, Sanford, Parestky, Davidson, Evanovich, and now I feel I have to start them at the beginning again because I'm a series order fanatic and I've forgotten some things so catching up feels like a tall order. Am I nuts (rhetorical question) or does anybody else do that?

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

Fair enough. Hopefully someone else will have recommendations for you. A quick scan of my bookshelves also revealed Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldán, which is a near future cyber-political thriller from Bolivia.

Oh, that sounds awesome! I added it to my wish list. I'm going to make myself finish one of my nonfiction books before buying a new mystery, but that sounds perfect. I also know very little about Bolivia.

My favorite "place" mysteries are probably the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly. LA isn't exactly exotic or anything, especially since Ive been there, but he makes the city come so alive it's like a breathing character in the series. I love that. Sue Grafton manages little slices of that atmosphere once in a while, and Paretsky at her best does it for Chicago (or could be that I walked her dog once and lived in Hyde Park). And Donna Leon, of course for Venice.

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

I work in a library and always have to restrain myself from collecting too many books I won't have time to read. I just finished Agatha H and the Airship City (a Girl Genius novel) which was given to me several years ago. To be fair though, I have read the comics so I wanted the memory to fade a little before reading the novelisation. Now I'm onto The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi (sequel to The Quantum Thief) plus I'm reading Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes. Instead of stockpiling books I keep endless lists of things I want to read. I do tend to alternate fiction and non-fiction. Right now I seem to be on a fiction streak. Only three non-fiction books so far this year.

Crowderpea, Dead Souls was so hilarious and good when I got through about half of it on audiobook, but then I lost my place - so annoying in audiobooks, and happens to me frequently when I accidentally let the ipod run on!! - and never picked it back up. Almost a year later, I need to get on that!! (Can't believe I never read it as an undergrad, it's one of a few books that really feels like a hole in my russian lit ed, but I found there was a big tendency to push the shorter works by authors. If I had a dollar for every time a class did the Overcoat, Notes from Underground, or Death of Ivan Ilyich....)

Anyway, I finished Yellow Birds. I enjoyed it, I think it does a great job of describing the difficulty soldiers have reintegrating back home, but it didn't feel like a great war novel in the way that, say, Matterhorn did for Vietnam.

Also read "Lean In," which I expected to hate. Instead I thought that parts of it were very valuable but it was, sadly, pretty inapplicable to my life. I can identify with frustration at scaling back on a career, but most of her proposed suggestions were just totally incompatible with my life. And I am part of the upper-middle class, white, higher-educated population she ISN'T completely ignoring. In the beginning of the book, she repeats the words of a friend involved in human rights work, who said that the best way to help women in Liberia is more women in power. I don't know about this. It seems to contradict later chapters, though she does cite a few anecdotal instances where a tipping point in percentage of leaders who are women changed gender culture in a workplace.. But.. maybe it's coming on the heels of reading The New Jim Crow, which is the most recent book that has really made me think about the world, but as Michelle Alexander points out there, having a diverse police force hasn't led to more racial equality in fighting crime...

Now I'm back to trying to finish the first Game of Thrones book, of which I'm 3/4 through. Was into it for a while, but now I find myself having to fight past boredom.. Also taking a break from Christopher Moore's Lamb, which I'm about halfway through. Moore is not as funny as he thinks he is.

I started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last night. I switched English classes right as we were starting this book in high school and never had the chance to go back and read it. I got to read Moby Dick in AP English instead. Woo.

If you haven't read the last few Cornwell books, tread carefully! They are nowhere near as good as the first ones in the series (in my opinion). I think it was about three books ago that I decided "no more", but then a new book came out and I felt compelled to give it a go because I used to love her so much, but if anything it was even worse.

As for recommendations, I really like the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series by Faye Kellerman.

_________________Everyone turns into Boo Radley, if they live long enough ~ seitanicversesThere are as many ways to live as there are humans in the world ~ SchwaGrrrl

That's why I stopped reading her. After Black Notice, it all went to hell and she started writing in the present tense: the phone rings. Scarpetta answers it. LavaWitch throws the book against the wall. Molly scurries out of the way.

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

That's why I stopped reading her. After Black Notice, it all went to hell and she started writing in the present tense: the phone rings. Scarpetta answers it. LavaWitch throws the book against the wall. Molly scurries out of the way.

Ha ha - that started to drive me insane! Add in the complete and utter ridiculousness of Lucy and I was done for good.

_________________Everyone turns into Boo Radley, if they live long enough ~ seitanicversesThere are as many ways to live as there are humans in the world ~ SchwaGrrrl

In other news, I just read Matched. I do love dystopian future YA. I'll be picking up the next in the series with the book money I got for Christmas.

Read them all, worth it, but not as good as the Hunger Games series. The third book is rather big and a little tough to get through in the beginning but I was happy that I finished the series. I believe Disney has already picked up the rights to the movie version.

I'm lagging behind my self-imposed reading schedule. But I'm not counting single-issue comicbooks, and an internet friend has just sent me Hellboy in Hell #1-4 (which I couldn't get here), so I read them all in one go, and once again I'm SMITTEN. Mike Mignola's art is so awesome.

Also taking a break from Christopher Moore's Lamb, which I'm about halfway through. Moore is not as funny as he thinks he is.

The first Moore I read was A Dirty Job, which I thought was hysterical. Everything else of his I've read has not been nearly as funny and Lamb has probably been my least favorite.

I haven't been reading much lately. I think I'm expending so much physical energy that I don't have the mental energy left for reading. It's sad. And weird. I have a bunch of books stacked up on my kindle that I'm sure I will enjoy but my attention span is too short. Last book I finished was Scott Jurek's Eat and Run.

Just finished Bring Up The Bodies, which was completely amazing. Next up is the latest Charlaine Harris (I need a bit of light relief).

We must be book twins. I just finished reading it too, and if I could afford it, I'd be reading the new Sookie! But since I can't, I'm on to the second in the Agatha Raisin series because it was on the Kindle owners lending library. I don't actually like this series that much, so I might stop after this one, but I wanted a quick, fluffy read before diving in to some classics.

Anyway, re: Bring Up The Bodies, I loved it! I can't wait for the sequel. I might try to read more books by Hilary Mantel and see if they're as compelling.

_________________A pie eating contest is a battle with no losers. - amandabear